Manufacture and treatment of textile fabrics



May 6, 1941. YF I 2,240,555

MANUFACTURE AND TREATMENT OF TEXTILE FABRICS Original Filed July 23,1938 Patented May 6, 1941 MANUFACTURE AND TREATMENT OF TEXTILE FABRICSHenry Dreyfus, London, England Original application July 23, 1938,Serial No. 221,029. Divided and this application May 8, 1940, Serial No.333,950. In Great Britain August 14, 1937 4 Claims.

This invention relates to the manufacture and treatment of textilefabrics and particularly to the manufacture of textile fabricsexhibiting crepe effects.

Fabrics exhibiting crepe effects are produced, in general, by weaving afabric which contains yarns which have been twisted to such a highdegree that on treating the fabric with a hot aqueous liquor the highlytwisted yarns shrink and cockle, thus imparting to the fabric thecharacteristic crepe appearance. The treatment with hot aqueous liquorsis generally referred to as the crping treatment and will be so referredto in the present specification and claims.

It has now been discovered that the efficiency of the crping treatmentmay be very considerably improved by vigorously agitating the fabricundergoing crping, and preferably the crping liquor also, during thecrping treatment. By this means it has been found possible to producecrepe effects of more pronounced nature than are obtained by a similartreatment without the agitation or, alternatively, to produce asatisfactory crpe eifect on fabrics containing threads twisted to asomewhat lower degree than is necessary to give a similar crepe effectunder ordinary conditions.

The degree of agitation employed in accordance with the presentinvention, considered as relative movement between the crping liquor andthe fabric, is greater than-arises with the usual gently boiling crpingliquor.

This agitation may be effected in various ways. One convenient method isto feed the fabric through the vessel containing the crping liquor whilesupporting it on a vibrating perforated tray, e. g. a wire gauze tray.Another'is to suspend the fabric in the crping liquor by means of aseries of strings which are kept in motion v vertically and/ orhorizontally preferably throughout the crping treatment.

The agitation of the crping liquor may be effected by various means.Thus, the crping liquor may be agitated by boiling it very vigorously orby forcing bubbles of gas, for example air, into the crping liquor, e.g. from nozzles situated at the bottom of the vessel containing thecrping liquor. The nozzles so employed are preferably relatively coarse,as bubbles of a substantial size are much more efiicient than finebubbles. The bubbles should be comparable in size to those produced byvigorous ebullition. Mechanical agitation of the crping liquor by meansof stirring devices, e. g. paddles, reciprocating vanes and the like maybe employed as well as or instead of one or more of the expedientsalready mentioned.

The fabric treated in accordance with this invention may contain yarnsof natural or artificial textile materials, e. g. yarns of wool, cotton.silk, regenerated cellulose, cellulose acetate, and other cellulosederivatives, and is valuable especially in connection with fabricsconsisting of cellulose acetate yarns, which are diflicult to crepe byordinary methods. Particularly good results are obtained by thetreatment, in accordance with this invention, of fabrics in which thehigh twist yarns, especially if they have a basis of cellulose acetateor other organic derivative of cellulose, have been twisted by a processin which at least the last part of the twist is inserted in the presenceof steam, preferably moist steam, or hot water. In this connectionreference is made to U. S. Patent No. 2,089,191.

It has been found desirable in order to obtain the best results tosubject the fabric to the crping treatment of the present inventionwhile the fabric is still in the condition in which it was originallywoven, e. g. without any intermediate cool scouring treatment.

The following examples illustrate without in any way limiting theinvention:

Example 1 A fabric comprising a cellulose acetate Weft which. has beenhighly twisted in presence of wet steam, and a' substantially untwistedcellulose acetate warp, is subjected to a erping treatment in avigorously boiling bath containing 5 gins. of soap per litre. The fabricis suspended by a series of strings. The production of the crepe effectis more rapid if the strings, and thus the fabric, are kept in constantmotion.

Example 2 A fabric in which both warp and weft consist of regeneratedcellulose yarns, which may be made by the viscose or cuprammoniumprocess or by saponifying a stretched or unstretched cellulose acetateyarn, the weft yarns being highly twisted, is suspended by a series ofstrings in a bath containing 5 gms. of soap per litre. The

cellulose yarns in the weft and cellulose acetate yarns in the warp.

The accompanying drawing 'shows somewhat diagrammatically one form ofapparatus which may be employed in carrying out applicants invention.

Referring to the drawing the reference numeral l indicates a vessel forcontaining a bath of crping liquor 2. The fabric 3 to be treated issuspended in the bath by means of strings t attached in any suitablemanner to any suitable means for continually moving the strings to keepthe crping liquor and fabric in constant motion relative to each other.The means for'moving the strings may be supported on brackets 6 whichare attached to the vessel I by means of bolts 7.

This application is a division of application Serial No. 221,029 filedJuly 23, 1938.

Having described my invention, What I desire to secure by Letters Patentis:

1. Process for producing crepe eflects on fabrics containing high twistyarns having a basis of an organic derivative of cellulose, at leastpart of of an organic derivative of cellulose, at least part of thetwist having been inserted in the presence of moist steam or hot water,which comprises suspending the fabric from strings in an aqueous liquor,boiling said liquor and continually moving the points of suspension ofsaid fabric, so as to keep the liquor and the fabric, relative to eachother, in a constant motion substantially more violent than that causedby gentle boiling of the liquor.

3. Process for producing crpe effects on fabrics containing high twistyarns having a. basis of cellulose acetate, at least part of the twisthaving been, inserted in the presence of moist steam or hot water, whichcomprises suspending the fabric from strings in a hot aqueous liquor,and by continually moving the strings keeping the liquor and the fabricin constant motion relative to each other, such motion beingsubstantially more violent than the relative motion caused by gentleboiling of the liquor.

4. Process for producing crpe effects on fabrics containing high twistyarns having a basis of cellulose acetate, at least part of the twisthaving been inserted in the presence of moist steam or hot water, whichcomprises suspending the fabric from strings in an aqueous liquor,

boiling said liquor and continually moving the points of suspension ofsaid fabric, so as to keepthe liquor and the fabric, relative to eachother,

in a constant motion substantially more violent than that caused bygentle boiling of the liquor.

HENRY DREYFUS.

